Consistency in the Assessment of Dried Blood Spot Specimen Size and Quality in U.K. Newborn Screening Laboratories.

In 2015, U.K. newborn screening (NBS) laboratory guidelines were introduced to standardize dried blood spot (DBS) specimen quality acceptance and specify a minimum acceptable DBS diameter of ≥7 mm.

Web-based integrated bipolar parenting intervention for parents with bipolar disorder: a randomised controlled pilot trial.

Background: People with bipolar disorder (BD) experience additional parenting challenges associated with mood driven fluctuations in communication, impulse control and motivation. This paper describes a novel web-based self-management approach (Integrated Bipolar Parenting Intervention; IBPI) to support parents with BD.

Method: Parents with BD with children aged 3-10 years randomised to IBPI plus treatment as usual (TAU) or waitlist control (WL).

An exploratory randomised controlled trial of a web-based integrated bipolar parenting intervention (IBPI) for bipolar parents of young children (aged 3-10).

Background: Communication, impulse control and motivation can all be affected by Bipolar Disorder (BD) making consistent parenting more difficult than for parents without mental health problems. Children of parents with BD (CPB) are at significantly increased risk of a range of mental health issues including Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), anxiety, depression, substance use, and sleep disorders. Furthermore, CPB are also at elevated risk for BD compared to the general population.

What do relatives experience when supporting someone in early psychosis?

Objectives: In the United Kingdom (UK), the government has set out priorities to support relatives and carers. Despite this, many relatives of people experiencing psychosis continue to feel unsupported by mental health services. This may be due to lack of funding, high caseloads for mental health professionals, or due to a lack of understanding of what relatives experience as a result of their family member's psychosis.

Feasibility of a supported self-management intervention for relatives of people with recent-onset psychosis: REACT study.

Background: Relatives of people with psychosis experience high levels of distress and require support. Family interventions have been shown to be effective in improving outcomes but are difficult to access and not suitable for all relatives.

Aims: To assess the feasibility and effectiveness of a supported self-management package for relatives of people with recent-onset psychosis.

A systematic review of randomised controlled trials of interventions reporting outcomes for relatives of people with psychosis.

Relatives play a key role in supporting people with psychosis at all stages of recovery, but this can be associated with high levels of distress. Family interventions, with an international evidence base, improve outcomes for service users but little is known about their impact on relatives' outcomes. This review of published evaluations aimed to assess whether family interventions are effective in improving outcomes for relatives of people with psychosis, to identify the key components of effective intervention packages, and to identify methodological limitations to be addressed in future research.

The views of relatives of young people with psychosis on how to design a Relatives Education And Coping Toolkit (REACT).

Background: Relatives of people with psychosis experience high levels of distress. Interventions are needed which can reduce distress and are widely available.

Aims: This study presents the views of relatives on how to design a supported self-management intervention for relatives.

Relatives Education And Coping Toolkit--REACT. Study protocol of a randomised controlled trial to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of a supported self management package for relatives of people with recent onset psychosis.

Background: Mental health problems commonly begin in adolescence when the majority of people are living with family. This can be a frightening time for relatives who often have little knowledge of what is happening or how to manage it. The UK National Health Service has a commitment to support relatives in order to reduce their distress, but research studies have shown that this can lead to a better outcome for service users as well.

Expression and purification of Cgb and Ctb, the NO-inducible globins of the foodborne bacterial pathogen C. jejuni.

Campylobacter jejuni is a Gram-negative microaerophilic bacterium that occurs as a common gut commensal in many food-producing animals and birds. Contamination of meat during processing is an important route of transmission, and C. jejuni is now recognized as one of the most important causes of bacterial gastroenteritis worldwide.

How lab staff and the estimation of free light chains can combine to aid the diagnosis of light chain disease.

The diagnosis and monitoring of free light chain abnormalities and disease has always been a challenging area for laboratory and clinical staff because urine electrophoresis is often overlooked in the investigations requested. We present here three case reports which illustrate first, the role of the laboratory staff and second, the use of serum free light chain estimations in the diagnosis and monitoring of patients with light chain paraproteinaemia and myeloma.

Structural and functional properties of a truncated hemoglobin from a food-borne pathogen Campylobacter jejuni.

Campylobacter jejuni contains two hemoglobins, Cgb and Ctb. Cgb has been suggested to perform an NO detoxification reaction to protect the bacterium against NO attack. On the other hand, the physiological function of Ctb, a class III truncated hemoglobin, remains unclear.

Oxygen reactivity of both respiratory oxidases in Campylobacter jejuni: the cydAB genes encode a cyanide-resistant, low-affinity oxidase that is not of the cytochrome bd type.

The microaerophilic bacterium Campylobacter jejuni is a significant food-borne pathogen and is predicted to possess two terminal respiratory oxidases with unknown properties. Inspection of the genome reveals an operon (cydAB) apparently encoding a cytochrome bd-like oxidase homologous to oxidases in Escherichia coli and Azotobacter vinelandii. However, C.

Purification and spectroscopic characterization of Ctb, a group III truncated hemoglobin implicated in oxygen metabolism in the food-borne pathogen Campylobacter jejuni.

Campylobacter jejuni is a food-borne bacterial pathogen that possesses two distinct hemoglobins, encoded by the ctb and cgb genes. The former codes for a truncated hemoglobin (Ctb) in group III, an assemblage of uncharacterized globins in diverse clinically and technologically significant bacteria. Here, we show that Ctb purifies as a monomeric, predominantly oxygenated species.

A truncated haemoglobin implicated in oxygen metabolism by the microaerophilic food-borne pathogen Campylobacter jejuni.

Of the three groups of haemoglobins identified in micro-organisms (single-domain globins, flavohaemoglobins and truncated globins), the last group is the least well understood. The function of the truncated haemoglobin (Ctb) encoded by Cj0465c in the microaerophilic food-borne bacterial pathogen Campylobacter jejuni was investigated by constructing a ctb mutant and characterizing its phenotype. The effects of the ctb mutation on the kinetics of terminal oxidase function in C.

NssR, a member of the Crp-Fnr superfamily from Campylobacter jejuni, regulates a nitrosative stress-responsive regulon that includes both a single-domain and a truncated haemoglobin.

Consistent with its role as a nitric oxide (NO)-detoxifying globin in Campylobacter jejuni, Cgb (Campylobacter globin) expression is strongly and specifically induced following exposure to nitrosative stress, suggesting a previously unrecognized capacity for NO-related stress sensing in this food-borne pathogen. In this study, Fur and PerR have been eliminated as major regulators of cgb, and NssR (Cj0466), a member of the Crp-Fnr superfamily, has been identified as the major positive regulatory factor that controls nitrosative stress-responsive expression of this gene. Accordingly, disruption of nssR resulted in the abolition of inducible cgb expression, which was restored by a complementing chromosomal insertion of the wild-type gene with its indigenous promoter at a second location.

Microbial globins.

Globins are an ancient and diverse superfamily of proteins. The globins of microorganisms were relatively ignored for many decades after their discovery by Warburg in the 1930s and rediscovery by Keilin in the 1950s. The relatively recent focus on them has been fuelled by recognition of their structural diversity and fine-tuning to fulfill (probably) discrete functions but particularly by the finding that a major role of certain globins is in protection from the stresses caused by exposure to nitric oxide (NO)--itself a molecule that has attracted intense curiosity recently.